With the coronavirus stats going in the right direction, all of us at C&G Newspapers look forward to resuming publication of the St. Clair Shores Sentinel and Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle on May 27th. All other C&G newspapers will begin publishing on June 10th (Advertiser-Times on June 24th). In the meantime, continue to find local news on our website and look for us on Facebook and Twitter.

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With the coronavirus stats going in the right direction, all of us at C&G Newspapers look forward to resuming publication of the St. Clair Shores Sentinel and Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle on May 27th. All other C&G newspapers will begin publishing on June 10th (Advertiser-Times on June 24th). In the meantime, continue to find local news on our website and look for us on Facebook and Twitter.

Huntington Woods residents are holding a fundraiser at Rackham Golf Course to raise money for course improvements on Saturday, May 18. They hope to bring in $20,000.

Fundraiser for golf course to be held at Rackham

HUNTINGTON WOODS — A couple of Huntington Woods residents are looking to improve Rackham Golf Course by holding a fundraiser on the grounds.

Rackham Golf Course, which has operated in Huntington Woods for more than 90 years, is hosting a fundraiser on Saturday, May 18, to raise money for course improvements.

The event, the first Short Game Skills Challenge, is a 36-hole par 3 tournament. The longest hole is 85 yards. It is a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m., and the entry fee is $99, which includes a continental breakfast and lunch. The field is limited to 90 players, and the first-place prize is $1,000.

The idea for the fundraiser came from resident Harry Katkowsky. Another resident, Bruce Carnick, said he got involved because he’s a friend of Katkowsky, and they both frequent the golf course, which is located at 10100 W. 10 Mile Road.

Carnick said that while the golf course is playable and isn’t being ignored by its owner, the city of Detroit, more can be done to improve the grounds.

“The city is doing what it can do as the owner, but there are a number of physical things that need taking care of on that property, and it’s not in the city of Detroit’s budget,” he said.

Some of the improvements Carnick hopes to see done at Rackham include two tees on the front nine holes that need to be resodded, and the men’s and women’s bathrooms in the clubhouse could be redone as well.

“The money that we intend to raise above the direct costs of paying Rackham for the use of the golf course that day is all going to go toward the improvements,” he said. The total amount that Carnick hopes to raise from the fundraiser is $20,000, $11,000 of which would be for Rackham improvements, and the rest covering some of the aforementioned course rental and tournament prize money.

“The more money we raise, the more things we can even look for,” Carnick said.

More than $7,000 already has been raised, according to Carnick, but what’s missing is a field of players, whom organizers hope will start to register soon.

“The money that is basically missing at this point are the players,” Carnick said. “We need to fill the field. … The most important thing to make this a success is filling the field.”

Karen Peek, the director of operators for Signet Golf Associates, which manages all three of Detroit’s golf courses, said there haven’t been any decisions on what the money raised from the fundraiser will go toward.

“The reality is I wouldn’t say anything’s going to be done with bathrooms or whatever,” she said. “We’ve discussed a lot of different possibilities, including enhancing some of the landscape beds. It could be planting flowers in some of the beds near the tees.”

Peek credited Katkowsky and Carnick for coming to Rackham with the “innovative idea” of doing something to raise money for projects that might not normally fall within the capital improvement domain.

“These guys have been playing here for, God knows, 40-50 years,” she said. “They have a real history, and I love that kind of thing. We share a love for this golf course.”

Organizers are hoping this event will become an annual one.

“This is gonna be an annual event,” Carnick said. “This isn’t a one-shot deal. There are people who learned how to play golf at that golf course when they were kids. That golf course has a tremendous history. … It’s a gem.”

People can email entries for the event to juelmen@golfdetroit.com. Visit www.rackham.golf to learn more information about the tournament, or contact Rackham at (248) 543-4040 or Katkowsky at (586) 536-3797.